New Facebook Chat: Love It Or Hate It?

If you use Facebook regularly, you may have noticed that the site now has a new chat bar. Overnight, Facebook tends to set up new features that users may, or may not, enjoy. So, what was wrong with the old Facebook chat? Well, nothing really. In fact, many users are now cursing the new Facebook chat, and an “I Hate the New Facebook Sidebar” page has even been set up.

If you’re wondering why so many people are not thrilled with the new Facebook chat, the answer isn’t straightforward. There are a few reasons why the new set-up is lacking, and one of them is that reaching out to those people you actually like chatting with can be tough. Looking forward, Facebook is working out kinks with various other companies to bring you a chat that’s even better than the one you see now.

New Chat Set-Up

For those who haven’t logged into Facebook in awhile, if you log in now, you will see a chat bar to the right of your screen. This bar will list all of the people who are part of your Facebook account. If you are available to chat, those people who are available to chat with you will have green circles next to their names.

To chat with someone, all you have to do is click on a name. You see, Facebook aimed at making chatting with someone easier by inserting a one-click chat function. You can go offline by clicking the “offline” button, and you can even hide the entire chat bar (a function that was not available until a day or so ago). If you never chat, tick the hide chat option, and you won’t have to worry about chatting with random strangers ever again.

Why People Hate It

Those who are avid Facebook chatters may want to chat with the same people every day. This would be a lot easier if Facebook hadn’t made talking with the same people difficult. Now, instead of typing a person’s name into a search box, you will have to scroll through the people available to chat in the chat box.

Facebook has placed all contacts in alphabetical order, so you may have to scroll for awhile to reach someone who has a last name that begins with the letter “Z.” This, simply put, is a pain. But, there are some good aspects of the new Facebook chat – really!

Video Chat With Skype

Facebook has been attempting to install video chat for awhile. Finally, Facebook and Skype have gotten together to bring you the Facebook video chat feature. You can choose to chat with any of your contacts via video through the Facebook/Skype chat option. If the person you are calling doesn’t answer, you can also leave a message. Or, you can simply sign up for Skype, and contact anyone on your list in this manner.

Group Chatting

It’s hard to think of many reasons why you would have to chat with a number of different people through Facebook. But, if you do want to arrange a group chat, it is now possible to speak with many people at once using Facebook chat. This feature could be useful for people planning homework projects or those who just want to gossip.

For businesses, there are other, better, group and conference call tools available. All in all, the new Facebook chat has definite drawbacks, but there are some bonuses to the new chat set-up too. Does the new chat deserve its own hate page? Maybe not. But, Facebook might want to read through some of the complaints in order to iron out some kinks.